


You're Beautiful, By The Way

by MelisandreStark



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Cody sighs a lot, Disney fusion, F/M, and sometimes a girl needs some light, because the angst is this ship is unreal, obi-wan is AUBURN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 20:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15178763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelisandreStark/pseuds/MelisandreStark
Summary: When young Prince Obi-Wan first sets sights on a mysterious human woman, he falls hard. Trouble ensues.





	You're Beautiful, By The Way

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I hope y'all like this cuz it took me way to long and I watched the Little Mermaid like six times during it so yeah. Pls comment if u like cuz it really makes me muy happy ^-^

Luminara crosses her arms and frowns as _Tranquillity_ glides over the water.

The waves aren’t particularly strong today, a little choppy perhaps, but that doesn’t seem to stop Lord Windu bending over the side of the ship and emptying out the bread and shellfish she’s provided him with for lunch.

She only takes her eyes off the sea when Gree—her excitable canine companion—licks her hand and barks to seize her attention. “It’s a good sea today, m’lady.” A member of her crew, Buzz, calls. “Nice and smooth—it’ll get us home in no time, you’ll see. King Qui-Gon must be wishin’ us well.”

Luminara cocks her head to the side slightly. “King Qui-Gon?”

“The king of the merpeople,‘o course!” Buzz grins, giving his brother Draa a pat on his back. “Can you believe it! Our good Queen, the fiercest sailor on the seas, don’t even know about King Qui-Gon!”

“Well,” Luminara says, without a smile. “Being at war doesn’t leave much time for children’s fairy tales.”

“Pay no attention to this nonsense, my lady.” Lord Windu, one of her advisors, trying valiantly to still appear poised and proper despite having just hurled his lunch from the ship via his mouth, says. “The sailor shouldn’t be filling your head with such folly.”

Buzz frowns. “It ain’t no folly, I swear!” He cries.

_It’s certainly more interesting than running a kingdom on your own,_ Luminara thinks to herself, but holds her tongue. “I’m sure it has its truths alongside the fiction, Buzz.” This time she smiles, if only to bother Lord Windu. Perhaps a year ago she would have laughed openly, but now, a year after assuming the throne, Luminara Unduli has no time for such futile disputes. She must be mature now of she intends to rule successfully.

She must be a Queen.

“Now let’s get home.”

* * *

 

 

Many miles beneath _Tranquillity,_ Prince Obi-Wan is not at the monthly concert that his father implores him to sing in.

It’s nothing personal—Obi-Wan just doesn’t like singing, _okay?_

He _knows_ that his father won’t be happy about him skipping again, and Cody will most likely give him a beating with those pincers of his, but at the end of the day it comes down to what is a better use of Obi-Wan’s time—singing for his father, or exploring this shipwreck?

Just, you know, your casual shark-infested shipwreck.

Because _what else_ would a nineteen-year-old prince be doing with his no-so-spare time?

He doesn’t know exactly when this particular ship sank—many years prior to his birth from the looks of it—or what kind of ship it is. With more recent shipwrecks you can often tell what kind of ship it had been—bigger, sturdy ships with canons tended to be warships—swifter, longer cruisers for merchants or, potentially, pirates.  With his bag slung firmly over his shoulder, Obi-Wan is sure that today he’ll find something new, something _exquisite,_ to add to his collection.

Narrowly slipping through a circular hole that had once been a window, he scans the upper deck for sharks. It is well known that there are sharks in this area, which is why his father had banned it, but he’s a fast swimmer, so doesn’t consider the potential of running into a predator a problem.

_Well,_ he thinks to himself. _You’re already here now. You might as well take a look around._

Slipping into what appears to be a lower deck, he is instantly greeted by a few skeletons slumped up against the walls. Likely once they had been clothes, but over time the material has rotted away and left the yellowing bones bare. “Oh.” He says aloud, backing away from them slowly. “Hello there.”

Deciding that cavorting with skeletons might give him nightmares, Obi-Wan opts to swim back up to the other side of the upper deck, securing his bag around his shoulder as he does. The upper deck does hold much more promise than the lower—a glint of silver tossed in a corner catching his eyes straight away.  Shooting over to examine this new object, Obi-Wan is immediately entranced. “Oh force.” He whispers to himself. “It’s amazing!”

Examining the object carefully, he sees that it is a three-pronged miniature trident, like his father’s, only this was _human_ which made it far more valuable, far more precious. Obi-Wan stashes his treasure in his bag with a grin—Dex will more than likely be able to tell him what it is, and boy is he excited to find out what treasure he’s found this time.

Stopping to look at another object—this time a curvy, wooden contraption that had begun to rot only slightly—Obi-Wan fails to notice the large shark in front of him before it smashes through a sheet of glass.

It is at this point that Obi-Wan begins to wonder whether his tiny silver trident was worth a race with a shark.

Just millimetres before the shark can bite into his face, Obi-Wan swerves to his left and makes a mad dash back for the lower deck, this time stalling through the individual cabins in attempt to lose his assailant. He slips back out through the small window frame he came in through, smirking at feeling that could potentially be described as cockiness since the shark is nowhere to be seen...

For the next few seconds, at least.

When said predator bursts through the side of the ship, splaying wood onto the seabed, Obi-Wan allows himself a small moment to be horrified that a creature would ruin such a beautiful human creation before deciding to swim for his life. Happening upon an anchor with a broken chain, Obi-Wan slips through the ring, anticipating correctly that the not-so-clever shark will follow him and, ultimately, get itself wedged inside.

“My, my,” Obi-Wan fights to hold back his smile. “Someone seems to be in a spot it trouble.”

The shark makes an unhappy noise and lashes at the Merprince with its ridiculous amount of teeth. Obi-Wan blows the shark a kiss and stays a moment a longer, just to let his victory rub in.

 It isn’t that Obi-Wan enjoys coming out on top in life threatening situations—it’s just...not everyone can be a good winner.

And he most certainly isn’t.

Leaving the shark to contemplate his actions in the ring of the anchor, Obi-Wan starts to make his ascent to the surface. He is still a few metres below the horizon when he hears his informant banging something of questionable nature on the little patch of rock he called home.

“Ah! My favourite prince!” Dex says once Obi-Wan reaches the surface, the seagull lying on some material Obi-Wan had found on the seabed for him a few years ago with a pile of rocks at his feet. “What can I do for ya?”

“I found these in that abandoned ship, you know, few miles across from here. I was hoping you could tell me what they were.” In fairness, Dex is not the fattest seagull Obi-Wan has ever met. A close second, perhaps, but not the largest. It isn’t a problem at all—if a bird wants to eat, a bird can eat. It isn’t like his weight has ever held him back from the vast knowledge of humans he has acquired somehow, and that Obi-Wan is eternally grateful for.

“Let’s see, then.” Obi-Wan tips the contents of his bag onto Dex’s rock, the seagull instantly attracted to the shiny, silver object.“Oh, I haven’t seen one of these in years.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes light up. “What is it?”

“These are very rare, y’see, you gotta be careful with it.” Dex says warningly, and Obi-Wan nods eagerly. “It’s a Jarum.”

The prince frowns. “A Jarum?”

“Exactly!” Dex grins as much as seagull can, clapping his feathers together. “All the hip young humans use them to stab holes in their faces and put rubbish through them. They call it ‘piercing’, I see it all the time with the youths.”

Taking the Jarum back and observing it closely, Obi-Wan fails to see piercing ones skin could be attractive in any way, or how this object could be used to do so. “How? I don’t see it, Dex. You couldn’t pierce a guppy with this. It’s blunt.”

“The eyeballs are the key. Eyeballs are all gooey, so once a human puts some of their eye juice, it just melts away their skin and leaves a hole.” Dex tells him. “It’s been going on for centuries—even got a hole in my wing once.” The seagull sighs, and looks to the ground dramatically. “I’ve never been the same since.”

“Oh, wow! That is amazing!” Obi-Wan would have jumped up and down in excitement if he’d had feet. “This is brilliant, I’ve got to show dad, he’ll love it! I got to go tell him—thanks Dex. You’re still my best informant.”

Dex gives him a salute with his wing. “Anytime, Obi-Wan. Anytime.”

 

* * *

 

Count Dooku has never been the type to sit around idly, so when sees the ever curious prince swim anxiously home in his fortune bubble he can’t stop the grin that spreads across his lips. It’s just...why did things always have to be so _easy?_

“Hurry back now, little prince.” He says, with a grin. “We wouldn’t want your father to miss you for too long, now, would we?”

He turns to a small bowl of shrimp he’s set aside as snack and plucks a squealing specimen from it with cruel satisfaction. “The oceans used to be great, you know.” He says to no one in particular. “Back when I mentored King Qui-Gon, we _prospered—_ before the traitor exiled me to this...pit.”

Grimacing, Dooku bites down on the little shrimp and its squealing turns to silence. It leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. “It is so unfortunate that he should see it fit to leave me here to starve, alone, in exile—whilst he and his pathetic excuse for offspring dance and frolic like ignorant little worms.

“But soon,” He promises, to the water, to the remaining shrimp, to himself. “He’ll see his mistake.”

Sharply, Dooku swishes around and glares at his two slightly-retarded operatives. “Gunray, Haako.” He snarls. “I want you to keep a very close eye on that young, ginger little son of his. I believe he may be the key to the King’s undoing.” Grinning, Dooku turns away from the pair of eels that serve him. “How positively perfect.”

 

* * *

 

King Qui-Gon, a man who rules all seven seas peacefully and, since the beginning of his reign, with very little conflict—cannot for the life of him begin to understand why his youngest son is so difficult to keep in line. “What am I going to do with you, Obi-Wan?” He sighs, massaging his temples in attempt to prevent a headache that is threatening to form.

“But look, dad, look what I found!” Obi-Wan pulls the Jarum from his bag and grins. “Isn’t is brilliant!”

The king frowns. “What in the name of the force is that?”

“It’s a Jarum. The humans use them to poke holes in each other! Can I get a hole?“

“I thought we had a plan, kid!” Cody, the musical conductor crab, with whom Obi-Wan shares a very love-hate relationship, comes zooming in. “You were supposed to come out from your shell and dazzle the entire kingdom with your voice. But _no,_ you _have_ to go rogue! Why d’you have to do this to me, kid, huh?”

Obi-Wan actively chooses to ignore the angry crab. “There was a really awkward situation, I swear!” He insists to his father. “I got chased by this shark—a really big one too—but I was really smart about it, if I do say so myself, and trapped it in this anchor. I was gonna come back straight away, I swear I was, but I got distracted by this seagull—“

“Seagull?” Qui-Gon never shouts, it isn’t his style really, wouldn’t suit him. But Obi-Wan knows that his quiet no-nonsense voice is essentially the equivalent of what shouting would be. “Did you go up to the surface again, Obi-Wan?”

“Not really, I—“

“It’s a yes or no question.”

“I...” Obi-Wan sighs. “I did. I’m sorry.”

The King sighs and stops attempting to halt the inevitable headache that will surely hit him in a few minutes. “I thought, after the last few hundred times having this conversation, we were clear about this, Obi-Wan.”

“We are, but—“

“Those humans are nothing more than savages—they hook poor fish and rip them from their homes every single day, they killed your _mother_. How can you even contemplate going up there, risking seeing those...those barbarians?”

“They aren’t barbarians. And my mother’s death wasn’t on purpose—you know that.” Queen Tahl had been caught in a crossfire between two warships when Obi-Wan was six—Qui-Gon has never forgiven the humans for it (or himself). Nor has he allowed Obi-Wan or his brothers to go up to the surface. “I’m almost twenty now, dad. I can make my own decisions.”

“You are a _prince,_ who has just turned nineteen _._ ” Qui-Gon says sternly. “You have a duty to your people to set an example, to help them live happily and _away_ from danger—not lead them straight too it! One day...one day you won’t swim back all merrily with your human filth—I don’t...” The king closes his eyes and breathes heavily. “I don’t want to find you in a ditch somewhere.”

_There it goes,_ Obi-Wan thinks. _The emotional manipulation._

The young prince frowns and swims off in a huff, leaving Qui-Gon alone with Cody. The crab sighs. “Teenagers.” He says. “And the others didn’t even give you half this kind of trouble! Things were so much easier when I was in the military.”

Qui-Gon frowns. “Am I...Am I too hard on him?”

Cody snorts. “Absolutely not. If I was raising that kid, he’d know more than the meaning of discipline, let me tell you. You’ve got to keep that boy grounded, get rid of all this ‘floating to the surface’ nonsense if you want to raise a strong, disciplined prince.” The crab then bows, realising he may have stepped over the line. “But that’s just my opinion of course, sir.”

“You’re probably right.” Qui-Gon rubs his eyes drowsily. Teenagers were more tiring that his entire kingdom—though Obi-Wan was something else entirely. The irony. “He needs a supervisor of some sort I think, a chaperone—someone to watch him, keep him out of trouble.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Cody nods, folding his pincers.

“So, what do you say Cody?” Qui-Gon valiantly tries to repress his smile. “Up for it?”

The crab is taken aback. “Me? No sir, surely there’s someone more suited, someone more qualified to—“

“Good.” The king sighs. “I’m going to get some sleep. I have no doubt you’ll do splendidly with him, Cody, no doubt at all.”

The kind swims away, leaving Cody alone with his jaw gaping.

This is not going to be fun.

 

* * *

 

It is a total of ten minutes after that conversation when Cody finds Obi-Wan up to no good again.

Why is he not surprised?

The prince looks around him cautiously while Cody hides behind a pillar—in true spy fashion—and then shoots off away from the safety of the palace. _God dammit,_ Cody cannot help thinking as he scrambles to follow the far more agile young prince. It’s in moments like these that Cody wishes he’d been born with fins rather than an exoskeleton and six legs.

Prince Obi-Wan turns back once again upon reaching a circular grey stone almost as big as himself—at which point Cody is seriously starting to run out of energy. When the boy lifts the rock and slips inside, Cody grants himself full permission to strangle said boy if and when he catches up, prince or not.

Fortunately, the crab is quick enough to slide into the cavern before the rock closes, and is in all honesty proud of his speed in that moment. Unfortunately, all pride is short lived, since once inside, Cody is even more horrified at what he sees.

It’s a wooden structure, leaning quite neatly against a rock, with two semi-spheres of glass on the inside meeting with a small, cylindrical class centre, and sand lying in the bottom of the two spheres. _Human,_ is his first despairing thought. _This is human._

To say that Cody is more shocked than he’s ever been in his entire life when he turns around to see the prince would have been, most likely, an understatement. He’s a tough, seasoned crab—Cody’s seen rough situations, done things he isn’t proud of, but always made it out okay. This—this cavern of simultaneous horror and wonder—might be the last straw for the king, not to mention Cody short-lived chaperone job.

(And is most _certainly_ enlightening to Cody, in terms of understanding just how unhealthy Prince Obi-Wan’s obsession with the human world is).

Oh, lord—the only thought his brain can produce in its shock. Why did teenagers _always_ have to cause so much trouble?

Obi-Wan, unaware of the crab’s presence, slams his fists against the wall and groans. “Why can’t he just get it?” He says to his many human treasures, to the water, to the seabed and seaweed. (And, though unknown to him, Cody). “Why can’t be see things through my eyes for once instead of his narrow minded old-man goggles, huh? He’s so—he’s _so_ fucked up...”

His only reply is an echo and silence, and if this behaviour hadn’t been so alarming, Cody probably would have pitied him.

“I just...ugh.” Obi-Wan rests his head against a rock and sighs. “I should be up there with them, exploring, doing something worthwhile instead of wasting away in a life I don’t want down here. I belong with them...” It is so strange, so out of place, for Cody to see the prince cry—and for a moment his heart really does go out to him.

_Poor kid,_ Cody smiles bitterly. _He was born in the wrong body—but he’s still got a duty to the ocean, to his father. No amount of sobbing can change that._

The moment of pity is short-lived before the severity of Obi-Wan’s actions returns to his mind.

“Prince Obi-Wan.” He finally says, coming out of his shadowy hideout, ever an upfront crab. “Enough of this—yeah?” He frowns, taking a look around. “What... is this, anyway?”

“Oh...” The prince wipes his eyes and forces a smile. “It’s just...uh...my collection.”

The crab crosses his pincers and sighs. “If your father knew about ‘your collection’—“

“You aren’t going to tell him, are you?” Obi-Wan dashes over to the crab in an instant, clasping his hands together in pleading. “He’d never understand, he’d kill me! Please, Cody, you can’t—you wouldn’t, would you?”

“Look, how about we just head home and sort this out with some hot food and—“ Before Cody can finish his sentance, the prince has drawn his attention up to a black, large oval shaped silhouette on the surface of the water that looms over them eerily. “Don’t you even think about it.” Cody warns.

Effectively ignoring his statement, Obi-Wan proceeds to swim to the surface.

“Obi-Wan!” The crab shouts after him. “Prince Obi-Wan, get back down here!”

Upon realising that his protests aren’t, under any set of circumstances, going to lure the prince back, Cody follows the prince grudgingly up to the surface. _The king better be paying me double for all the trouble this is causing—being a chaperone completely sucks._

By the time Cody reaches the surface, the prince is completely entranced by purple, orange and green flashing lights coming off in bursts from the back of a ship and exploding against the black of the sky. “We need to go.” Cody urges, grabbing the prince’s arm. “Come _on.”_

Being, once again, ignored—Cody bangs his pincer against his forehead as Obi-Wan shakes his grip away and dives across the surface, further towards the ship.

 

* * *

 

No matter the occasion, the purpose, the guests—Queen Luminara still hates parties.

She obviously still allows them to take place—her entire crew would resent her if she didn’t, and she isn’t _that_ strict—but there is something about a kaleidoscope of colours, noise and growing body odour from dancing that just makes her feel incredibly uncomfortable. It’s all entirely unnecessary, they don’t even have anything to celebrate other than making it another day along the sea without drowning, and yet here they all are, dancing and drinking while she sits on the edge of the ship and sips slowly at the glass of wine she’s been cradling since they first started three—no, _four—_ hours ago.

Being the only woman on the ship, and their _Queen,_ almost every man had offered to dance with her over the course of the night purely for chivalry’s sake, and she had declined every single offer. It doesn’t seem fair that everyone else can have fun at these parties—hell, even _Gree_ is having a better time than her—while she sits nursing the same cup of wine she’d originally poured _four hours ago._

Is it her fault that her definition of enjoyment is sitting down with a book, playing her flute in private or going swimming for a few miles?

_God, I really am depressing._

She spots Gree sniffing something and slowly edging towards the other side of the ship, so begins to walk over. “Gree! To me.” Luminara calls, and he plods happily towards her— whatever had been previously occupying his attention forgotten. It wouldn’t do to have him falling into the sea _again._

(Though, in fairness to her potentially handicapped canine companion, his last adventure in the water had been a direct result of turbulence and _someone_ deciding that it would be a good idea to feed her dog tequila).

“What are you up to, boy?” She asks, allowing herself to smile as he jumps up and down excitedly around her feet. Kneeling down to his height, Luminara gives him an affectionate scratch behind the ear.

In response, Gree barks contently at her with his tail wagging, proceeding to run off to where a band of sailors is playing. It doesn’t take long before she realises what he’s doing. “Come back!” She calls weakly, but when he does return he already has the flute in his jaws, and the crowd of dancers have all turned towards her. _Oh, no, you daft dog—why do you always do this to me?_

“Play for us, won’t you m’lady?” Draa calls from the back of the crowd, thrusting his pint of _something_ green into the air.

“No one plays better than you m’lady!” Buzz adds.

“You are quite exquisite on the flute, your grace.” Lord Windu says far more respectfully—because Luminara appreciates etiquette, in contrast to common belief, likely due to the sheer informality of her crew.

They don’t need to be formal—they need to be good sailors and warriors.

Still.

Etiquette would have been appreciated.

Gree barks and wags his tail, dropping the instrument in her hand with a fresh layer of slobber coating it charmingly. Grabbing a napkin from her table, the queen concedes and tries to make the flute as hygienic as possible. “I warn you,” She says. “I have no sheet music, so it’ll be off the top of my head. You’ll probably be disappointed.”

“You could never disappoint, m’lady!”

When she places the flute to her lips, she cannot help but feel another pair of eyes on her. Not one of her crew, even though they’re all regarding her expectantly—this is...different.

Once she sees the excited and eager looks on all her crew’s faces, Luminara dismisses her thought, and begins to play.

The order she plays the notes is not one she’s practised, but the notes themselves she knows better than any person she’s met. She can name all of them by touch, sound and sight—can feel how they thread together, which patterns are pleasing to the ear and which are not. All members of the royal family would have been required to learn a musical instrument— at least this is what her history tutors have told her, since she’s never met another in her line to her memory— but very few truly had loved it like Luminara does.

The men dance—a slower dance to match the tune, but still with strong joyful undertones, since their Queen would never play something melancholy on a night such as this. It remains upbeat, happy, yet slow enough for the crew to really enjoy the moment rather than waste it away with jives and drinking.

Gree seems to love it too—though he is impressed quite easily.

When she finishes but a few minutes later, an abrupt but appropriate finale, the men are all somewhat disappointed. But they know better than to ask for more. Asking for it once is fine—but she remains their Queen, not their friend, and to push any further would be disrespectful.

At least, that is what _etiquette_ would dictate.

“My lady,” Lord Windu emerges from the sea of dancers with an air of grace just before she can sit down. “In light of your recent victory against the Dathomiran’s, I have had a gift made for you, to show my gratitude and that of the thousands of soldiers who fought underneath your truly remarkable leadership.”

“Oh, Lord Windu.” She sits down, smiling out of curtsey. “You shouldn’t have.”

Two sailors emerge from the lower deck carrying something that looks awfully heavy underneath a white blanket. With a gesture from Windu, they pull the blanket away to reveal and bigger-than-life-size silver sculpture of Luminara in a more feminine dress than she can ever remember wearing.

“It’s...it is rather large.” Is all she can say honestly, and tries to comfort Gree who begins growling madly at it.

“Well, yes, I commissioned it over a year ago now.” Windu says, crossing his arms. “I had _hoped_ it would be a wedding present.”

It takes a lot for Luminara not to groan at that, but she manages to keep her composure. “I have no desire to hand my throne over a man at the present, Lord Windu.” She says very calmly. “And, as I have told you before, should I find someone I desire to wed, I’ll make sure to tell you. I do not remember making such a declaration. Am I mistaken?”

“The prince of Shili was perfectly adequate as a match, you grace!” Windu whines. “The entire kingdom just wants to see you, married, settled down, with children—you must be an example to your people!”

“You do not decide who I wed, sir.” She states clearly, with a hint of malice. “And is has never been my intent to be trophy wife for my people to gawk at while a man rules my kingdom, fights my wars and makes my decisions. What sort of an example is that, I ask you?” The crew seem somewhat uncomfortable with said conversation so the music gets louder, and they dance over the top. “I am a Queen, and a warrior— _not_ your, or anyone else’s plaything. I have not found an appropriate partner, and therefore shall not wed. That is the end of this discussion.

“Well maybe you should be looking harder.” Windu mutters, though not so quietly that she doesn’t hear. She chooses to ignore him—lacking the will to argue.

“M’lady!” Draa cries from the other side of the ship. “Lightning!”

Windu completely forgotten, Luminara shoots to her feet in an instant, and a roaring thunder echoes across the ocean.

Despite being a little drunk, all the men rush to their stations without delay, throwing ropes to each other and saving valuable equipment; Luminara grabs her own rope in attempt to secure the rigging. The _Tranquillity_ has been through her fair share of storms before, but this one seems so sudden, so big, and so...harsh. 

_She’ll make it. She’s got to make it._

Normally, when leading the _Tranquillity,_ Luminara is taking her into a battle—adorning heavy armour with a sword by her side—so leading a ship against a foe she can’t fight is almost strange to her. Defending a ship from Mother Nature herself is always far more unpredictable that any Dathomiran galley that she could face, and is hardly something that you can, when on open seas, defend yourself from.

Now it is just about hoping that a deity, any deity, heard Luminara’s silent cry for help.

The man who’d been on the wheel—Gett—is all too quickly blown off into the water, something that hurts Luminara deeply. Sure, she has always kept her crew at an arms distance away, but she still does _care_ for them—she prays that the ocean is kind and doesn’t let Gett be lost to the waves, and that he’ll somehow find his way to shore alive.

For even she, for all her power, has no sway over— _who was it Buzz told her about?_ —King Qui-Gon.

With Gett gone there is no one at the wheel, so Luminara makes a mad dash for the bridge to lock down the steering. The wind and rain is lashing in her face making it hard to see—let alone steer—but she continues anyway. _Tranquillity_ is a strong ship—made for battle—but even she cannot withstand a storm such as this one without steering.

She desperately turns the wheel left while waves pound against the ships side with more force than she’s even known—part of her wonders whether Lord Windu is throwing his supper up, or actually trying to secure their survivial before she scolds herself for such a misuse of her thoughts. Turning the _Tranquillity_ into the wind’s current, she knows they’ll be a little safer and allows herself to breathe.

Why, _oh why,_ did everything, despite her best efforts, _have_ to go wrong?

It is only a few seconds after her belated steering success that a powerful of lightning hits the back mast, setting it alight, and the _Tranquillity_ looms over to one side. An enormous gust of wind hits them simultaneously sending a dozen men into the sea—Buzz and Draa among them—and Luminara can do nothing but stare in horror as her ship starts to go down.

The rest of the crew dive into the sea, but Luminara’s feet are frozen still.

Even Lord Windu is paddling like a futile penguin, a sight that may once have brought laughter to her lips, but now leaves her more than upset. She allows herself a little relief when she see’s that Draa had gotten one of the lifeboats out and is about to leave her poor, beautiful ship when she hears barking.

“Come on, m’lady!” She can hear Buzz shouting through the wind. “You’ve got to get off, m’lady, now!”

Reckless behaviour has never been a common activity of hers—something her nannies and advisors over the years were undeniably happy about—but in this moment she cannot help but place Gree’s life over the potential loss of her own.  Rushing down the amidships—and cursing the rain for not putting out the fire the lightning had caused—she narrowly leaps out of the way as the flaming mainsail crashes down, through is forced to go down to the lower deck in order to escape it.

Fortunately, the mast had carved a large hole in the upper deck, where Gree is looking down at her nervously, whimpering and edging away from the flames that threaten to engulf him in a matter of minutes.

“Come on, Gree!” She screams through the wind and rain and fire. “Come on, jump, I promise I’ll catch you!”

To her own credit, Luminara does catch him, and genuinely surprises herself at her ability to carry such a big dog. Putting it down to adrenaline, she rushes forward to the edge of the ship and throws Gree down, Buzz catches him and hauls him into the lifeboat.

She is about to jump after her dog when she hears a rumbling sound behind her and turns around.

“M’lady no!” Buzz cries, but by the time she hears it the gunpowder they’d been storing at the bottom of the _Tranquillity_ goes up entirely in flames, and all she can see, smell and breathe is black smoke.

 

* * *

 

It is unendingly tragic to Obi-Wan that such and happy, enjoyable night of festivities could turn to horror so quickly.

Cody’s warnings and protests aside, Obi-Wan had loved the party initially. Dex had even flown by to point out the different objects and food the humans consumed and danced too, and at one point a big, fluffy (human?) had come over to the spot where Obi-Wan had been sneakily perching and licked his face.

And that is when he’d seen _her._

She’s beautiful—long, midnight hair with these amazing blue eyes and black markings on her chin. She isn’t wearing the type of clothes Obi-Wan has seen in the statues and pictures of women he’s collected before, simply black mens trousers and a long-sleeved black t-shirt. One thing that he could tell from the short time of happiness on the boat was that she was the captain of the ship—or at least, much higher in status that everyone else—since she was always addressed as ‘my lady’ and once ‘your grace’ like his father was, and wore a bronze tiara-type thing on her forehead that went back underneath her black tresses.

And now, he is frantically swimming around the ship that is mostly a wreck already, trying desperately to find the beautiful woman who had been engulfed in black smoke.

He looked in every direction, under and over the water, until he sees her—face down on a piece of wood with wet hair like a mask over her face. She slips off the wood and into the water, unconscious, and Obi-Wan dives after her. He grabs her by the waist and hauls her—surprising light—body up to the surface.

It takes all night to get her to land—a beach with sand and big rocks, with a castle and a town in the distance so she’ll be able to find other people. Dex flies over to him and Obi-Wan is eternally grateful for the knowledgeable seagull’s arrival. “Dex!” He cries. “Dex, is she...alive?”

The seaful picks up one ofher— _what do you call them again?—_ feet with his wing, and presses it to his face. “I’m sorry, I can’t make out a heartbeat.” He says a little too melodramatically.

Sighing, Obi-Wan turns back to her still face. “She’s...she’s so beautiful, Dex. Just look at her.”

“I’d be lucky to find another bird that looked that good.”

The merprince gently puts a hand to her cheek and sighs, but a gentle noise catches his attention like no other ever had. “Look!” He cries. “She’s breathing, Dex, she’s breathing!”

“Sing to her then, go on then.” Dex grins.

Obi-Wan makes an exasperated noise. “Why on earth would I _sing_ to her?”

“’Cause that’s what humans do when they’re companions are asleep, to wake them up. Singing really rattles their heads up—that’s what they teach all their doctors in training.” Dex explains.

“What would I even sing?” Obi-Wan asks, frowning. He’s always been a good singer, that was why his father always had Cody direct concerts for him, but he has never _enjoyed_ it, per say.  Singing was such a _girly_ activity.

“I don’t know, just somethin’.”

So the prince sings, like a songbird, to his sleeping maiden while Cody watches, unknown to him, from a nearby rock with his jaw gaping open. There are no words, not any literal form of expressing his astonishment of what that teenager had done now. Cody can’t even begin to imagine what his father would do if he found Obi-Wan, on a _human_ beach, singing to some unresponsive girl he’s retrieved from a shipwreck.

The _shame_ of it.

He might have gotten over his shock and given Obi-Wan a piece of his mind, had the damn seagull not decided to flit over and clamp a wing over his mouth.

The merprince’s smile widens even further when the maiden’s eyes begin to flicker open. Oh, he’d get to talk to this girl, finally, and they’d—

At the sound of a barking in the distance, Obi-Wan panics and shuffles back into the water. The fluffy creature he’d seen last night, the one that had seen him on the ship, licks the maiden’s face and tries to rouse her up—Obi-Wan hides behind a rock when another human—this one older, with dark skin, no hair and purple, fancy clothes comes up to the maiden with a smile.

“Oh, my lady, Queen Luminara, I thought we had lost you!” The bald man cries, offering a hand while the maiden— _Queen Luminara_ , Obi-Wan corrects mentally, gets to her feet with a dazed expression. “Everyone feared the worst, especially your dog— wouldn’t stop barking all night.” Then he frowns. “How on earth did you get back here safely? I know you’re a strong swimmer, your grace, but even you couldn’t have made it this far in those waters, my lady.”

She is silent for a moment, looking out to the water where Obi-Wan’s hiding behind a rock, and smiles. “There was...a man. He...he rescued me.” She frowns. “He was singing, I think. I am not usually one for vocal music but he...His voice was almost entrancing, it was beautiful...”

The Queen is still clearly very weak, and Obi-Wan winces when she almost collapses, though is happy when the other human is able to catch her. “I think you may have swallowed a little too much seawater, your grace.” The other man says. “Let’s go get you some hot food and some rest, I’m sure you’ll feel much more clear-headed tomorrow morning, my lady.”

The fluffy creature runs a few feet into the water and barks in Obi-Wan’s direction, he can’t tell if it’s on purpose or not, so stays firmly hidden behind the rock.

Cody sighs. “We’re just going to pretend that this whole thing never happened.” He gives the prince an unimpressed look. “I won’t tell him if you don’t tell him, alright? If your father finds this we’ll both end up minced.”

“Something’s starting, Cody.” Obi-Wan says quietly. “Someday, I swear it, I’ll be part of her world.”

The crab resists a very strong urge to bang his head on the rock. _Hard._

 

* * *

Back in his cave, Dooku is enjoying this all far more than he has any right to be.

“Oh, no.” He grins. “It can’t be this simple! The boy has fallen for a human—and the Queen of all humans.” He laughs into the rock he reclines on as his tentacles twirl and coil. “His father will adore that, I’m sure. And he’ll make a charming addition to my garden...”

He turns and faces a few square metres of sand that is his favourite place in the entire ocean. There, he buries the heads of those who cross him and when sad looks over them, talks to them, feeds them worms and acid. Oh, the joy a few severed heads can bring!

The heads all looked a bit scared of him in truth, but it isn’t as if Dooku can change the facial expression they wore when he had brutally killed them.

It _wasn’t_ murder—because he had had permission.

“You’d like a nice, fresh head to join you, wouldn’t you?” He says to the unresponsive heads. “And he’ll be my first ginger at that...”

 

* * *

 

“Come on, Obi, come out!” Obi-Wan’s brother, Feemor says.

“You’ve been in there all morning.” Xanatos, the miserable middle child, adds with a scowl. No matter what (and many have tried), no one can seem to get Xanatos out of his default foul mood. And people wonder why Obi-Wan doesn’t spend much time with his brothers.

To both their surprise, their younger brother emerges from his seaweed bed with a smile on his face and a twirl in his fins, something that is both unusual and out of character. “Oh, please don’t tell me you’re becoming a hippie.” Xanatos moans, smacking his forehead with both hands.

“What’s with you lately, Obi?” Feemor asks—Obi-Wan actively ignores both of them. Both brothers are endlessly confused by Obi-Wan’s dreamy and happy state, one that he’s so invested in that he backs strait into their father.

“Oh, sorry dad.” The young prince says absently, and Qui-Gon gives his two elder sons a strange look, to which Xanatos just shrugs.

“Oh my lord.” Feemor shakes his head in disbelief. “He’s got it bad.”

“What?” Qui-Gon asks.

“Isn’t it obvious? I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.” Feemor sighs. “Obi-Wan’s in love, or he’s been using drugs.”

Feemor and Qui-Gon both shoot a look to Xanatos—the unofficial dealer of powdered coral in the palace and serial drug offender.

Xanatos just shrugs.

The King frowns. “Both of those are unrealistic.” He then pauses, and bites his lip. “Though would you mind checking his room for...any drug-like substance later, Feemor?”

The eldest prince smiles. “Sure. Though he won’t be happy if he finds us snooping through his stuff.”

“When are we ever happy?” Xanatos scowls. “Life is a series of endless misfortunes where we all end up in some pit, rotting away somewhere. Happiness is a lie.”

Xanatos’ brother and father leave as quickly as their fins can carry them.

 

* * *

 

“Dear Lord.” Cody sighs, slumped up over a rock, only a few feet under where Obi-Wan is lying dreamily. “How am I supposed to keep this from the King? He’ll have my shell if I don’t say anything—and he’ll have my shell if I do.”

Obi-Wan, for his part, is completely oblivious to his chaperone’s internal conflict and is perfectly content playing with a little yellow flower picked from rock next to him. He lies down on his back, tail in the air, and sighs. “I’ve got so see her again.”

Cody’s eyes widen tenfold and he shoots up to Obi-Wan’s rock. “Stop talking crazy, kid.” He warns, pointing an accusing pincer.

Obi-Wan’s face lights up. “Dex knows where she lives—he can get her to come speak to me!”

Just before he can swim off, Cody claws onto his bottom fin with his pincers. It isn’t enough by any means to hold him back, but at least it does mean that he doesn’t have to scramble madly to catch up. “Just keep your head under the water where it belongs, and don’t let it float back up, okay?”

“I’ll swim up to the beach, and Dex’ll make some noise to get her attention, and then I’ll—“

Cody sighs, once again. “You live down _here,_ Obi-Wan. This is your home—under the water. Just listen to me. The human world is a mess—it’s full of rubbish that you don’t want to get into, yeah? Down here, under the sea, is so much safer and better than anything the humans could offer you up there. Trust me.”

If Obi-Wan is initially going to reply, he doesn’t, and looks to the crab to finish his piece. “Just look around kid.” Cody says, letting go of Obi-Wan’s tail, trusting that he’ll stay put. “There are all kinds of coral down here, fish of every colour and—just look!” A shoal of yellow fish approach them, and Obi-Wan can’t help but smile.

“Up there, fish are kept in bowls or on a plate—you don’t want that, do you? Down here we’re _free_ , no work, just happiness, yeah kid?” Obi-Wan still seems unconvinced, so Cody goes up to more sea creatures. “You all tell him—I’m crap with words—it’s better under the sea.”

“Sure is!” One of the fish chirps.

“There isn’t anything better!”

“Why on earth would you rather go up there?”

“It couldn’t be greater down here!”

When Cody turns back around, point proven, feeling more relieved than anything else—he may or may not be on the brink of a seizure to find that the prince has slipped away.

_I am gonna kill that kid one day._

“Sir Cody, sir?” A tiny little seahorse approaches the exasperated crab. “The King has summoned you him. You must attend to him immediately.”

_He can’t know...how could he know?_ “Uh...yep.” Cody gulps. “I’ll be right there.”

 

* * *

 

“I have concerns for Obi-Wan.” King Qui-Gon says to his crab counterpart upon Cody’s arrival to the throne room. “He seems...bizarre lately, and his brothers picked up on it too. Have you noticed any...peculiar activity on my youngest son’s part lately, Cody?”

Cody gulps. “Uh...no sir, should I have?”

“I think your keeping something from me.” Qui-Gon raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms, the smallest hint of a smirk playing over his lips.

Cody’s mother taught him to be an honest crab, and realistically he wouldn’t have been able to hold his tongue much longer anyways. “I swear I told him to stay away from the humans, I swear I did, but he just wouldn’t listen and—“

“Humans?” Qui-Gon closes his eyes, gritting his teeth, and clenches his fists. “Did you just say humans, Cody?”

It is in this moment that Cody realises that no, the King didn’t know, and yes, Obi-Wan was going to _murder_ him.

That is, if the King doesn’t murder him first.

 “No—well yes, sir, but no, well yes though—“

Before Cody can formulate any adequate sort of excuse or comeback, the King is gone, and the crab truly fears for Prince Obi-Wan’s life. Or at least, his freedom in the near future.

 

* * *

 

It doesn’t take long for Qui-Gon to track down his son, and when he does he is more angry than he ever has been in his living memory. If he had been the shouting type, Obi-Wan would have been getting the screaming of a lifetime, but he isn’t, so this is the muted equivalent. “Obi-Wan.” He says tightly after entering a small cavern that Obi-Wan frequents—the merprince spinning around very quickly in shock. “A human?”

He doesn’t need to elaborate.

“You don’t understand dad, she would have drowned, I had to save her; I couldn’t leave her and—“

“A dead human is one human better off.” Qui-Gon exclaims. “You’ve walked a fine line with humans in the past, and that has been distressing enough—but contact! You made _contact_ with a human?”

“She’s _good_ dad, you don’t know—“

“They are all the same, Obi-Wan!” He almost cries. “They are murderers, incapable of any feeling, savages! The killed your mother, is that alright with you?”

Obi-Wan is on the brink of tears already. “No they aren’t! She’s different from those who killed my mother, I know it! I love her—“

“Have you lost your mind?” Qui-Gon asks, scarily lowly. “Have you gone _completely_ mad? She’s a human, you’re a merman! You are a prince of the oceans, and she is a mindless _savage._ Force help me, Obi-Wan, you _will_ listen to me—and if this is the only way I can get through to you, then it must be.”

Qui-Gon hasn’t commented on the little cavern of Obi-Wan’s—full of human horrors—though knows his son well enough to see extremely unhealthy attachment when it is there.

Really, he should have acted sooner.

Raising his trident, and feeling more remorse than he is like to admit, he points his weapon to a blue and green sphere, the golden light from the end of his trident causing it to explode into nothing. Again, other objects, leather bound books, parchment—items he can’t even begin to describe— _all human._

“No, dad, you can’t!” Obi-Wan pleads, watching in complete horror as years and years of collecting are destroyed in a matter of seconds. He chokes back a sob and glares at his father—with anger mirroring that of Qui-Gon’s. “How _could_ you?”

The King says nothing—looks at Obi-Wan for a short moment, frowns sadly, and leaves the cave.

 

* * *

 

Cody, who has been present for the entire ordeal, feels more than a little guilty.

The poor kid hadn’t meant to do any wrong—he knows that—but the King was right, and a prince _does_ need to follow the rules if he expects the rest of the ocean to. Slowly, the crab approaches. “Obi-Wan, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—“

“Just go away.” Obi-Wan says, face buried in his hands, slumped against a shelf that once held books and globes and sculptures. “Just go away.”

Knowing that staying isn’t going to make the prince feel any better, the crab takes his cue.

Sometimes space is all a person needs.

 

* * *

 

_Why,_ Obi-Wan thinks. _Why can’t he understand?_

His father had not been more with any natural disagreeable attitude towards humans—Obi-Wan still remembers when he was younger and his mother alive, they’d all sit together up on the surface. Everyone could see how much King Qui-Gon had loved Queen Tahl, and while Obi-Wan only has faded memories of her face, he knows that at some point he really, truly loved her himself.

She was killed in collision with a human galley, and Qui-Gon had never forgiven—himself, the humans, anyone.

It isn’t really like Obi-Wan can blame him. And yet he does.

“Poor child.” Obi-Wan hears in an unfamiliar voice, and looks up through tears to see two dark blue identical eels circle her slowly. “Sweet child.”

“What an awful dilemma you face,” The other one says, frowning pitifully. “If only there was something we could do to help you...”

The first eel stops, and turns to his companion. “But there is something...”

Obi-Wan sits up and wipes his eyes. “Who are you?” He asks, trying not to allow his voice to stutter.

“Oh, don’t be scared, little one.” The second says, coming a little too close for comfort. “We represent someone who truly cares, someone who can help you.”

“Someone who can make all your dreams come true.”

“Just imagine...” They say in unison. “You and your Queen, together, forever. How beautiful.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Dooku has great powers.”

“That sea witch? I couldn’t possibly, he’s evil! Leave, just leave me alone!” He cries, and turns away.

“Suit yourself, it was only a suggestion.” One says, and both eels begin to swim away.

Obi-Wan sits up and looks back at them, biting his lip. “Wait...” He begins. “Can he really make it so I’ll see her again?”

They both grin toothily. “Ask him yourself, why don’t you.”

Both eels swim on again, and Obi-Wan follows. _This is the right thing,_ he tells himself. _Your own father would destroy everything you love. This is right._

All three of them leave the cave, and instantly Obi-Wan hears Cody. “Kid, where the hell are you going?” The crab scrambles after him.

“I’m going to meet Dooku.” The prince replies, and Cody’s blood runs cold.

“You can’t! That filthy thing is a demon, dark and terrible, I’m telling you, please!” Cody grabs Obi-Wan’s tail but the prince shakes him off.

“Go tell my dad.” Obi-Wan says absently without turning around. “You’re good at that.”

Cody can’t help but feel guilty at that, and sighs—part of him is screaming to do just that, Qui-Gon is far more equipped to deal with Dooku that Cody could ever be—but that would mean forfeiting Obi-Wan’s trust permanently, and this crab isn’t prepared to do that just yet.

Taking a deep breath, Cody swims out after the prince towards what could only be described as Dooku’s ‘lair’.

The lair itself is actually quite aesthetic, like a large coral infested skeleton—glowing green from the inside, surrounded by little puffs of green coloured steam. It takes a lot more than fancy coloured gas water and a big dead fish shape to intimidate Cody, though he can’t say the same for Obi-Wan.

The prince stops once they reach the jaws of the skeleton—canines open as if to take a bite. “This way.” The eels say together, and with a deep breath Obi-Wan swims inside after them.

Obi-Wan assumption of what the interior would look like is correct; the walls are glowing green and rotting, with dead looking plants limping from cracks and crevices. He swims over— _Are those heads? They can’t be!—_ swallowing his fear and taking a deep breath.

“Come in,” The voice is deep and sophisticated, not at all what he had been expecting from the witch. “Come in, young prince.”

Cautiously, Obi-Wan floats into the open space where Dooku is calling him from. Thick strips of seaweed hang from the ceiling, though he doesn’t have much time to analyse his surroundings before Dooku comes into view.

“One shouldn’t linger in hallways, you know.” The sea witch says. Dooku is clearly an old witch, about seventy maybe by the look of his face, and had eight inky tentacles opposed to regular tail most merfolk had. There was something about him—Obi-Wan would have said glamour, but that sounded bizarre when used to describe an old see witch such as Dooku. “I’d question your upbringing, little prince, but then again we both know King Qui-Gon wouldn’t allow you to have such _bad_ manners.

“Now then,” Dooku says. “You’ve come to me because you have a problem, a debacle, let’s say—concerning this young Queen Luminara.” Obi-Wan says nothing, simply nodding, so Dooku continues. “Well, the solution to your problem is quite simple. The only way to get what you want is to become a human, though I suppose you could have figured that one out by yourself.

He doesn’t gasp, though cannot quite stop his jaw from dropping. “Can you...can you do that?”

“Don’t insult me child!” To Obi-Wan’s great surprise, Dooku doesn’t say it maliciously. “That is what live to do—what I love. To help such sorry and unfortunate merfolk such as youself. Poor, desperate souls with no one else to turn to.”

As he speaks, Dooku slowly circles the young prince in a way that seems almost territorial. The prince gulps.

“In the past, I have not been so kind,” Dooku admits. “But my recent years in exile have led me to believe that helping is far more rewarding that hindering. Since I have delved into the magical arts before, I have helped many a mermaid or merman who needed a little...cosmetic help.”

With a wave of his hand, a cauldron emitting green gas emerges from the seabed and Dooku rests his palms on the uneven edge. “I admit that once or twice there have been mishaps.” He concedes. “I don’t do this for free, you know, and magic is unforgiving. On the whole, however, most of those who I’ve aided have been most happy with their...changes.

“I will make you a potion,” Dooku says, and gestures for Obi-Wan to approach the cauldron. “It will make you a human for three days, no less and no more. Before the sun sets on the third day, you must get the Queen to open up to you. Should she confide in you and feel romantically attached, with the symbol of a kiss, you’ll remain human _permanently.”_ Obi-Wan can’t help but smile at that. “But if she does not, I’m afraid you’ll turn back into a merman, and you’ll be in my possession.”

“No, Obi-Wan, don’t!” Cody cries from a spot Obi-Wan didn’t realise he’d been listening from. The eels approach the crab and hiss, though he seems unfazed.

The prince frowns, and looks to the ground biting his lip. “If I become human...I’ll never see my father or my brothers again.”

“Well observed.” Dooku says, somewhat condescendingly, though Obi-Wan doesn’t seem to notice. “But you’ll have your beautiful Queen—what a gruelling choice you have before you, eh?” Still uncertain, Obi-Wan bites his lip. “Oh, and there is one more thing; the matter of your payment.”

“I don’t have anything—“

“I’m not asking for very much,” Dooku interrupts. “Just...your voice.”

Obi-wan frowns. “My voice?”

“Yes—no more talking, singing, whistling; you’ll be a mute!”

“But...if I don’t have a voice, how can I—“

The witch sighs and smacks his forehead with his palm. “You have your looks—quite a handsome young boy, if I do say so myself, and ginger hair is so rare...”

“Actually, it’s auburn—“

“That’s all you really need, isn’t it? I’m no love expert but if you truly believe you are meant to be with this woman, surely you don’t need word, feeling should be enough, shouldn’t it?” He swims up to a shell that was against the ceiling and opens it up, taking out a few bottles of questionable liquids and tossing them into his cauldron. The concoction boiling and bubbles a venomous green, and from it a picture of Queen Luminara appears.

“Now make a decision, I haven’t got all day.” Dooku says. “It won’t cost much, just your voice.”

The image vanishes and explodes, shooting light of every colour against the walls and the sucking them back in, replaced with puffs of white and grey and purple. So distracted by the potion, Obi-Wan almost missed the golden piece of parchment and pen that Dooku conjures out of thin air. “Go ahead lad, sign the scroll why don’t you?”

Grabbing the floating pen, Obi-Wan takes a deep breath.

_For her,_ he thinks, but has to close his eyes when signing his name, since this is a potential life threatening decision. He ignores Cody’s loud protests even after the eels wrap around the crab to cover his mouth. The scroll disappears once he’s signed, and Dooku shoots him a maniacal grin.

Speaking words  Obi-Wan can’t even begin to translate, orange circles of light begin to swirl around the room, spinning faster and faster around both Dooku and Obi-Wan. It flashes red, and Dooku eyes turn wide towards the prince. “Now sing!”

Despite this being one of the, if not the, most important moment of his life, Obi-Wan can’t help but snigger at the amount of times people had been telling him to sing recently. Still, he obliges, and the red light starts zoning down on his body, lifting him up higher and higher. A light appears at his throat and rises up and out of his mouth—escaping into a small gold shell Dooku wore around his wrist.

A shooting pain hits Obi-Wan on his tail, and had he had a voice he might have screamed. The prince winces as the pain grows and his tail splits into to and then—no, it’s not a tail—he has legs!

His wonder is short lived, however, since it dawns upon Obi-Wan that humans cannot breathe underwater, and now nor can he.

Darting away from the eels, Cody grabs the princes arm and drags him up to the surface as fast as his six little legs will carry him—Dooku cackling laugh somehow managing to echo loudly no matter how far they get away. Once they reach the surface, Obi-Wan coughs and splutters, though manages to breathe.

“Come on kid.” Cody sighs, letting Obi-Wan rest a hand on his back as he swam towards the beach.

 

* * *

 

She knows it isn’t proper to be hiding from Lord Windu—nor would she under any normal circumstance do so—but today...well, everyone’s aloud a cheat day, right?

_And besides,_ she tells herself as she plays her flute on the beach. _It was Gree’s fault. He took me here._

Luminara has loved the sea ever since she was a little girl, always felt calm around the water and swam whenever she could. Even the loss of _Tranquillity_ couldn’t change that—though she would miss her poor ship dearly. Another war ship was being built for her already, though she could never forget her first and finest.

“Did you see him, Gree?” She sighs, pulling the flute away from her lips. “That man who saved me. I’m so sure he was real—I can’t get that voice out of my head.”

Gree only barks happily in response, so she scratches behind his ear where he likes it, and goes back to playing the same tune.

 

* * *

 

In all honesty, Cody doesn’t think he’s ever been more exhausted in his entire life. That’s what heaving a prince across the ocean all night would to do you.

He dumps Obi-Wan against a rock, where the prince blinks, seeming a little dazed but mostly conscious and aware of his surroundings. He lifts one unfamiliar foot from the water and grins.

“Oh, what do we have here!” Of all possible moments Dex could have come flying in, Cody deemed this the absolute worst. “Look what the tide dragged in! Oh, look at you!”

Obi-Wan smiles at the seagull—Cody just look unimpressed. “Don’t be encouraging it! He traded his voice for feet and legs and has placed both himself and me in a _very_ precarious position.”

“But it’s all he’s ever wanted, Cody.” Dex smiles.

“Smartmouth over here thinks he can get this Queen to fall in love with him in three days.” Cody sighs, resisting the urge to bang his head on a rock as Obi-Wan attempts to walk and fails quite miserably. “Just look at him! On legs. On actual human legs. His father is going to murder both of us,” He makes a face and turns to Obi-Wan. “Unless Dooku does first...”

“Look at the bright side.” Dex grins. “At least he ain’t miserable like he would have been if he hadn’t grew legs, right?”

For the seemingly millionth time since being assigned to watch Prince Obi-Wan, Cody sighs. “Okay, kid. I’ll help you. But I am _not_ getting cooked for you, is that clear?”

Obi-Wan nods eagerly and claps his hands together.

“Let’s go find him then.” Dex grins.

 

* * *

 

When Gree starts barking madly and running off, Luminara curses and runs after him.

“Gree!” She calls, and is completely ignored. “Get back here! Gree!”

He continues round a corner and Luminara—not a long distance runner, is prepared to throttle the dog that she loves more than anything in this world. “I hate you...” She wheezes once she’s around the corner, leaning against a rock to pant for breath. Gree comes over to her a licks her face, barking madly, and then runs back off. When she looks up two things happen.

Firstly, she realises why Gree ran off so excitedly, since there was a man sitting by the shore seemingly lost.

And secondly, she blushes furiously and spins around on her heel since said man is completely _naked._

“Uh...hello...” She says with her back turned. “I...um...do you have any clothes you could put on?”

There is no reply, so Luminara turns back around cautiously, and is relieved to see that the man had sat himself behind a rock which conveniently covers all the parts of him that she would rather not see. He smiles at her though, which is surely a good sign. She frowns.

“Have we met before?” She asks. “You seem...familiar somehow.”

The man nods, his smile widening even further, and Gree barks wildly. He was always so well behaved around strangers normally—it is almost unnerving to see him so comfortable and excited around somehow Luminara can remember only milliseconds of—if even that.

“Do you have a name, sir?” She asks. “Or clothes?”

He tries to speak but no sound comes out, so he clutches his throat and shakes his head. “Can’t you...can’t you speak?” He shakes his head once more.

Feeling a more empathy for this man—or boy, actually, he seems only a little older than Luminara herself—she smiles and turns to her dog. “Gree, could you run back inside and grab a blanket for me, or a towel; something for this poor man to cover himself with?”

The dog complies happily, running back to the castle with a seemingly endless spur of energy. “How did you end up here?” Luminara asks, sitting down on a rock nearby where she can’t see behind his.

He makes a wavelike gesture, points at his mouth and then spreads his arms out wide, looking to Luminara with a smile. She, not really comprehending any of that, simply returns his smile. “You must have been through a lot, but I promise you’ll be safe in the castle. You seem like an interesting young man.”

After a few minutes of waiting, Gree comes back with a very nice silk throw in his mouth, that gets completely ruined and worn by the new arrival, though Luminara cares little.

_There’s something about him,_ she thinks, as she and Gree lead him back to the castle.

 

* * *

 

Obi-Wan has never seen this many bubbles in his life.

He loves it.

His Queen had left him with a dark skinned young woman who called herself Depa who had brought him a large chamber with a big, round tub in the middle that had already been filled with water a bubbles. Cody manages to slip in through the window—the crab ever reluctant to leave the young prince—though finds himself taken with curiosity about this castle Obi-Wan’s misbehaviour has lead him to.

Cody crawls down from the chamber where Obi-Wan is playing with the bubbles, into a room where lots of women are scrubbing material in big wooden tubs. “You must have heard about him,” One plump, yellow haired woman says. “Depa said that the Queen seemed quite taken with him—but he’s hardly King material. If she’s looking for a man then there are more than a few I could name that are far better than this one that washed up on the shore.”

“Well I think he’s rather fetching.” Another woman replies, grabbing a dry tablecloth and dunking it into the water.

Never being one for gossip, Cody quickly evacuates the washing room through a window into the next room. After he does, he quickly regrets it.

It’s like a horror show—dead fish and knives strewn everywhere like it was nothing. But the very worst, the pinnacle of evil, was the large plateau of stuffed _crab_ decorated with a mixture of green things set on a middle counter. For the first time in his long and fruitful life, Cody faints.

 

* * *

 

“You do know that many in the castle don’t approve of this...man, who just washed up out of nowhere.” Windu sniffs.

Luminara raises an eyebrow. “And why should I think anything of such remarks, my Lord.”

“He could be a spy for the Dathomirans! Imagine the danger you could be putting us in by bringing him in, let alone to the _royal_ dining table—“

“He is a homeless mute without a single possession, sir, I very much doubt that he is a spy.”

“We have no real proof he’s a mute, he could just be saying that to win your trust.”

“He isn’t _saying_ anything, Lord Windu—that is quite the point.” She doesn’t raise her voice or allow her irritation to show through, though is quite certain that he gets the message. This man—whoever he is—interests her, and she intends to find out more about him before deciding what to do with him. Mute or not.

Windu sighs. “Do you intend to marry him? In which case, I could not help but support you. It’ll take a miracle before you fall for someone I choose.”

“I have no intentions with this man other than to understand where he came from, my Lord.” She says sternly, allowing no room for further protest.

There is a thirty second window of silence in which Luminara nurses a glass of water, before Depa’s voice can be heard in the doorway. “Come on, don’t by shy.” The maid says—only a moment later, Luminara’s visitor emerges from the shadows in a shirt with black trousers in a similar style to those Luminara wore.

In truth, it was a real relief for the Queen to see her guest with clothes, and now she could allow herself to think of him as fairly comely, if not handsome. “You look delightful.” Windu says. “Please, do sit down.”

“I see you acquired some clothes.” Luminara raises an eyebrow to him—and the man blushes, and then beams when she adds, “They suit you.”

Had he been able to reply, Luminara likes to think he’d say something on the lines of ‘you look wonderful, my Lady’ or ‘I am ever so grateful to be able to dine with you. Perhaps the first statement would have been a little misguided—since Luminara wears typically men’s attire, not the gowns and frocks every other woman she’s ever met adorns.

The stranger spies the silver cutlery on the table, and picks up the fork, regarding in almost worriedly. Luminara gives him a confused look, though says nothing. Windu takes a pipe out and lights it, and the ginger haired visitor’s eyes light up again. “Yes, this is quite an exquisite pipe.” The Lord acknowledges. “Would you like to look at it?”

Recieving a rather enthusiastic nod, Windu hands the pipe over, and before he can stop him the stranger from the sea blasts black dust from the pipe onto Windu’s face. Luminara cannot stop the laugh that escapes her, though places a hand gently over her lips. She then coughs, and gives her advisior a very serious look. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be, my lady.” Windu sighs. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile, let alone laugh, in weeks. Am am perfectly content to be at the butt end of a few mishaps should it make you smile as you do so beautifully.”

Despite looking momentarily embarrassed, the visitor’s smile soon returns, and Windu wipes the dust off his face with a once white, and now grey, napkin. “Depa,” Luminara calls to the maid who’d been waiting at the door. “Do tell me, what will we sup on?”

“Oh, the chef’s cooking his speciality—you’ll love it, your grace.” Depa smiles. “Stuffed crab.”

Luminara almost laughs again at the look of shook on her guest’s face.

“I’ll go check if it’s ready.” Depa says, dashing off out of the door and down the stairs to the kitchen. When she returns, it’s with three silver plateaus with polished coverings.

“You know,” Windu says, regarding his still covered plate mildly. “Perhaps our guest would enjoy a tour of the kingdom.”

Luminara smiles when the man nods. “I’ll send for an escort.”

“No,” Windu shakes his head. “I think _you_ should take him around, would you like that sir?”

He nods once more, and Luminara resists the urge to throttle the Lord for the so obvious set up. “I would love to,” She says. “However, I have defences to plan, people to see, and other duties I must attend to. If there a way to, I would, but unfortunately I find myself unable to spare enough time to go around the city.”

“How convenient that you’re schedule for tomorrow can be freed—worry not, your grace, I’ll ensure that nothing is left unfinished. Enjoy a day of freedom, as you so deserve.”

_How very convenient,_ she muses, though says nothing more to her advisor. “Would you like to join me on a tour around the kingdom tomorrow, sir?”

The man smiles, and claps his hands together softly, nodding.

_Perhaps I’ll get to understand this confusing man more tomorrow,_ Luminara thinks, plucking a piece of lettuce from her plate and chewing it gently.

 

* * *

 

“I hope you appreciate what I do for you, kid.” Cody says, with an air of exasperation.

Obi-Wan just smiles in response, flopping back in the soft and squishy bed that is in such contrast the bed of seaweed he normally sleeps on. “Tomorrow you’re pulling out all the stops, and I mean it. You are gonna charm this girl until she can’t see nothing but you anymore, got it? You are gonna look your best, be friendly, charming, gentle—but not too eager otherwise you’ll look creepy. You are gonna be—“

Cody stops, realising that the prince was in no way conscious enough to be taking any of that in, and sighs. “Night, kid.”

 

* * *

 

Obi-Wan is thoroughly delighted at the horse drawn carriage the Queen had been waiting for him by as he meets her in the courtyard. “Normally I ride horses bareback if I’m going out into the kingdom,” She explains. “But I don’t know if you can ride or not, so the carriage seemed the best option.”

She hops up surprisingly elegantly, and he isn’t so far behind, but his own ascent is somewhat more clumsy since he’s still getting to grips with walking. The horse—a white stallion called Vida—was unlike any other creature Obi-Wan has ever seen. It was as fast as any fish he’s ever seen, with four powerful legs that seem to run tirelessly. Luminara holds the thick reigns in her left hand.

“Considering that I’m it’s Queen,” She says, looking a little embarrassed. “I spend increasingly little in my kingdom. The war has meant that I’ve kept myself locked myself up in the castle to prepare—but Lord Windu was right—I needed this.”

Obi-Wan is a third son, never going to be the king, and so has never really had to worry about the pressures of ruling. But he has seen how stressful it can be—it certainly has taken its toll on his father—so he can at least sympathise. It is moments like these that he desperately wishes he could give her words of comfort, but cannot, so simply smiles and points to a tall building in the near distance questioningly.

“That’s the grand church,” Luminara says as Vida slows and they trot over a bridge. “That’s where all the royal babies get blessed, and where many marriages take place. Not that I remember being blessed, mind you.”

It is that moment that Obi-Wan feels a sharp pinch on the back of his neck, and when he turns he a mixture of unsurprised and exasperated to see Cody perched on the back of the carriage. “Look more interested.” Cody whispers between gritted teeth, to which Obi-Wan simply nods.

The kingdom is full of people of all ages, and after expressing a wish to explore a little on foot, Luminara parks the carriage next to an intricately carved fountain and the both dismount. Everything around him is exciting and new, birds squaking from wooden cages, puppets batting each other with clubs made of cloth stalls of every kind—food, material, jewellery, ink, paintings, flowers—more than Obi-Wan could have ever imagines.

There was even a group of men playing music, a little like they had on Queen Luminara’s ship, so Obi-Wan drags the Queen over and smiles.

“Oh...I don’t dance.” She says in an awkward tone, seemingly trying to expel a blush.

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow at her and takes one of her hands in his, placing the other gently on the small of her back. She makes a noise of protest, though goes along with it—and they dance somewhat successfully  in the corner where no one would see them. He’d thought, before they left, that her being the Queen might attract some attention, but apparently nod. She dressed and, in a few ways at least, acted like every other citizen.

He loves that about her.

They leave the centre of the city on the carriage where Cody has oh-so-patiently waited for them, now with Dex flying ahead squawking encouraging comments to the merprince.

“Do you want to try the reigns?” Luminara offers, and Obi-Wan takes them alarmingly enthusiastically—causing Vida to run at thrice the speed, quite unevenly, through a rockier part of the kingdom. He doesn’t even stop at a cliff’s edge, where Luminara gives him a slightly frightened look and leans back, bracing herself, on the seat.

“It might not be wise to—“

He rides straight over the cliff’s end, landing bumpily but successfully on the other side—the Queen both thoroughly shocked and exhilarated simultaneously.

The other side of the kingdom, as it turns out, is completely inhabited by nature—there aren’t any people here, just trees and flowers and a large lake that joins with the sea. “Even though that probably isn’t the route I’d take,” Luminara says, allowing herself to relax a little more. “This side of the kingdom always is my favourite—it’s quiet here, away from people.”

He nods, wishing once again he could reply properly, and parks the carriage next to the lake. Fortunately—in somewhat of a fairytale coincidence—there is a little brown wooden rowboat floating at the bank. Obi-Wan jumps out of the carriage and points to it excitedly.

The Queen laughs. “Alright. But, I’m saying it here and now, if you capsize that boat and we won’t be friends anymore.”

_So we’re friends?_

Obi-Wan sits himself down in the boat, taking the oar, and smiles at the graceful descent Luminara makes opposite him. It’s getting late now, the sun slowly setting and the sky beautiful shades of purple and red and orange. In the corner of his eye, Obi-Wan can see Dex and Cody slumped up against a tree with worried looks on their faces.

_They’re right,_ he knows. _I need to get her to open up—but how can I do that without a voice?_

 

* * *

 

“This calls for,” Dex says as Cody regards him with growing horror. “Something I like to call romantic _stimulation_.”

“Oh, please, don’t—“

The seagull starts making some horrendous choking noises in the vaguest of tunes—it sounds a little like he’s being plundered to death with a bat—so Cody, the chaperone and once full time conductor, decides to take things into his own pincers.

He is a well known crab across the ocean—so all the creatures around comply to his musical demands happily and without contemplation. Cody is, after all, one of the King’s closest confidants.

Who wouldn’t comply, realistically?

“We need to set the mood,” Cody instructs, feeling more than a little ridiculous, though also a little excited. “Get this girl to open up to him, get him to kiss her—got it?”

Somehow the music the sea creatures manage to create is more than a little pleasant—it’s one of the most romantic symphonies that he’s ever conducted (if he does say so himself), and Cody is completely shaken that the Queen hasn’t fallen into Obi-Wan’s arm like a lovesick puppy already. Like _come on—_ what does it take to get some romance going with these human girls?

Cody crawls up the side of the boat, despite the warning glare he’s getting from Obi-Wan, and grins. “Come, you know you like him,” He whispers behind her, and Luminara’s head shoots around remarkably fast. Not fast enough for her to see the sneaky little crab slide back under the water, but still with impressive speed. “Did you...did you hear something?” She asks, fiddling with a lose strand of hair— the prince just shakes his head innocently.

“He hasn’t got a lot to say,” Cody climbs back up on the other side of the boat, at her other ear. “But there’s something _about_ him...”

“Look I...feel really awful not even knowing your name.” She says shyly—Cody can detect the hint of a blush in her cheeks—a good sign if he’s ever seen one. She frowns. “Maybe I could guess?”

Obi-Wan nods with a smile, so she leans back in the boat while he rows. “Maybe...I don’t know, Mace?”

The prince pulls a face and she laughs. “Okay, okay, not Mace. Jack? Peter?”

Nope, and nope.

“Obi-Wan,” Cody whispers from behind her. “The kid’s name is Obi-Wan.”

The Queen frowns. “...Obi-Wan?”

He nods, beaming, and sets the paddle aside, taking her hand as the best sign of appreciation he can think of. She looks uncomfortable at the contact at first, though after a few moment tightens her own grip. “Okay, Obi-Wan. I like it. It’s a beautiful name.”

The boat seems to still in the middle of the lake, streams of fish passing underneath, Cody’s tune still playing dimly in the background. “I...” The Queen starts, staring at her feet. “I feel like I can trust you—something I don’t feel very often and...I don’t know why.” For Cody, this moment highlights that despite years of fighting on the front lines and leading her people through war, Queen Luminara is still just a girl. The crab smiles warmly. “I don’t have any family—haven’t had any family, since—well my parents both died when I was a baby. The only people around me have been my advisors and crew, handmaids and bodyguards. I’ve never felt close to anyone—unless, I suppose, you count Gree.” She smiles then, looking up at him. “But...there’s something about you, Obi-Wan, something I’m so uncertain about. I’ve only known you for a day, and yet...”

Their faces lean together subconsciously as she speaks, Cody and Dex both high fiving at their (Cody’s) handiwork from a nearby rock, unable to keep their grins spreading from figurative ear to ear. “And yet I can’t help feeling like...”

They are only centimetres away from their lips meeting, both hands gripped into one another’s, when the boat capsizes and the both fall into the water.

Cody at this point, begins to question the meaning of his existence.

 

* * *

 

“Ugh...that slutty little boy!” Dooku groans from his cave. “He’s better than I thought. It’s time I took matters into my own tentacles.” Had it not been for his faithful eel’s intervention, Obi-Wan could have come out of the bargain _successfully._

Dooku isn’t in the business of helping people, despite what he may claim when pitching his deals.

He shoots over to his cauldron, throwing bottles of all kinds inside it until a golden light emerges and surrounds him.

“Time to make things...more practical.”

 

* * *

 

The moon is high and the sky dark when Luminara finds herself sitting on a balcony, playing her flute absentmindedly while Gree runs around her feet excitedly. “I know, boy, I know.” She mutters—the dog howling and barking in the direction of Obi-Wan’s chambers as he runs. “He’s beautiful, and charming, and...I think I could love him—but what if I’m making a mistake? What if...”

Luminara sets her flute down. She has been raised for war and leadership—and while she takes no joy in killing, it is certainly more comfortable to her that her current position. Feelings, emotions, love problems; all the kind of problems you should be able to talk to your friends about, your mother. Luminara doesn’t have any friends, doesn’t _have_ a mother—and, oh, she really wishes she did in this moment.

She’s on her own.

Deciding that this is something to ponder when she’s fully rested, and turns around with the intent to return to her chamber—but not before a voice can be heard from the beach down below.

She’s heard this voice before, back on the beach, when she washed up. Her memories of that event are muffled and like a forgotten dream. This voice is powerful, present.

Luminara glances down to the beach.

A figure—tall and muscular looks up at her from the beach with a smile.

Luminara is not one to be swayed by physical prowess so turns away almost immediately, but before she can get far a gold stream of magic chases her, corners her, and inhabits her mind.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, when Obi-Wan wakes up, he is surprised by Dex’s excitable visit—the seagull pours into his room squawking “Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan! Congratulations! Congratulations, kid—we did it, oh lord we did it!” merrily.

The prince yawns and rubs his eyes—in equal confusion to Cody, who almost yells “What the hell are you on about?”

Dex laughs. “As if you don’t know—the whole kingdoms buzzing with excitement about the Queen getting married this afternoon! Good luck, kid—I knew you could do it. I knew it!”

“That isn’t right. She’d never arrange a marriage like this—I’ve seen her for two days, and I could already tell you that.” Cody frowns, looking to Obi-Wan. “Did she say anything about this to you?”

Obi-Wan shakes his head, biting his lip nervously.

He’s a young prince, brash and a little impulsive at the best of times, but no one would ever call him _stupid._ This wedding—whatever it is—is not anything that _his_ Queen would ever consider without months to mentally prepare herself. Obi-Wan knows her well enough to understand where she stands on public affairs and thorough planning, since she had told him of her opinions in great detail yesterday.

This isn’t _right._

Without bothering to change, Obi-Wan bolts out of his bed with Cody close behind him, only to freeze on the staircase once he sees Luminara with _another man_ talking to Lord Windu. “Congratulations, my Queen, sir.” The Lord is saying to the pair.

“We wish to be married as soon as possible,” Luminara says, leaning into her ridiculously tall and muscular companion.

“Of course,” Lord Windu says cautiously. “But these things do take time to prepare. You, of all people, your grace, always require time to take care of everything. This is...a little too soon, is it not?”

“There is a wedding ship that can depart at sunset.” Luminara says—though when Obi-Wan looks at her, she seems...vacant. Like she’s looking at Lord Windu, but not seeing him. Like she isn’t really there.+

_This can’t happen,_ Obi-Wan thinks himself incredulously. _It can’t, it mustn’t..._

* * *

 

 

The ship is—in Cody’s opinion, at least—far too intricately designed to be anything more than practical. Obi-Wan has been silently scheming all morning about what on earth had caused such a change of heart in his Queen—who the hell that man is. Upon coming up with naught, the prince accepts his fate and mopes around next the ocean.

Despite trying not to show it as he sits against a flagpole on the pier—Cody can see the tears dripping from the prince’s eyes. Instead of offering words of comfort, Cody gently places a pincer against his shoulder, and lets him cry.

Because, really, all this time—Cody had been rooting for him.

 

* * *

 

Dex has just been flying around, you know, minding his own business—not _at all_ spying on a certain wedding boat—when he happens to listen in on a certain mystery man’s cabin.

“Not too long now,” The man was saying to himself. “Soon enough I’ll have that little merboy—this disgraceful hiding will be over and the oceans will be mine.”

The man looks in the mirror—but the reflection is different, and it doesn’t take long for Dex to think of someone who fits that description. “The sea witch!” He mutters to himself, before flying as quickly as possible to the pier where Obi-Wan is sitting.

Because, if Dex is remembered for nothing else, he _will_ be remembered as a prompt and helpful seagull.

“Obi-Wan!” He cries, wheezing from flying at speeds he once couldn’t have even dreamed of. “I was flying...and there was this guy—big guy—talking to himself in the mirror about some merboy—scheming, do you get what I’m saying here! Big—enormous—man, whose hands are cheatin’ and feelin’ up your Queen!”

Cody and Obi-Wan give him a deadpanned look.

“The _Queen_ is marrying _the sea witch!”_

Had any sound escaped him, Obi-Wan would have gasped, in sudden understanding of what has happened and sudden determination to remedy this completely unjust situation. He grabs an empty barrel of wine to keep him afloat and dives into the sea—the ship isn’t so far away, and if he kicks his legs hard enough he might be able to make it to the ship in time. “Dex, stall that wedding as much as you can!” Cody commands, the bird giving him a salute and going on his way.

The crab dives in after Obi-Wan. “The sea king needs to know about this—now go, go to her, stop this wedding!”

 

* * *

 

Considering Dooku’s track record with bad luck in the past—things are going remarkably smoothly.

It’s more than strange for him to be standing here, at the altar, next to a Queen that is comely, he concedes, though not at all his type. His comfort is, all things ultimately considered, misplaced—and is why he is so genuinely shocked when a small group of birds dive strait for his head.

There are crabs and lobsters next—an onslaught of crustaceans—followed by starfish, and sealions, dolphins and a _dog._

That _fucking_ dog.

In all this madness, while the guests all gasp and gawk, the Queen goes on oblivious—standing at the altar like a mannequin— since Dooku’s spell has rid of her freewill. The dog— _that fucking dog_ —rips Dooku’s bracelet off with his teeth, the magical-filled shell smashing onto the floor, and ultimately releasing the Queen from the spell.

The magic, taking a golden form, drifts over to the side of the ship and swirls around Obi-Wan— _when had_ he _gotten here?—_ entering his throat and bestowing him, once again, with a voice.

Dooku is prepared and willing to rip his hair out.

 

* * *

 

Luminara is beyond confused, wondering why the _hell_ she’s wearing a white dress and veil—though more entranced by the golden light that had just enveloped the mute Obi-Wan. “ _Obi-Wan?_ ” She asks, a little incredulously—though mostly just confused and a little turned on (not that she’d even admit that).

“Luminara.” He replies, Gree bounding over to him like some long lost friend, and barking happily.

“You can...you can talk?” Slowly Luminara approaches him, trying not to freak out. He fills the gap between them, taking her hands in his. “You were the one, on that beach, you saved me you—“

“Luminara! Stop!” A man in a suit calls from behind her—Luminara vaguely remembers the face and chooses to ignore him.

“I wanted to tell you, I really did—” Obi-Wan replies hurriedly, and in a sudden spur of confusion and madness, the Queen leans up to kiss him.

“Luminara, no!” The other man cries once again, his cries turning to laughter once Obi-Wan freezes in her arms and collapses onto the ground.

Luminara crouches down to take his pulse as she’s been taught to do—though stops immediately when she sees a _tail_ where Obi-Wan’s legs should be. She turns to the other man who is laughing manically like a villain from a fairytale, lightning pouring from the tips of his fingers to the sky. “Who are you?” Luminara cries, clutching an unconscious Obi-Wan close to her chest and choosing to ignore the tail.

The man’s legs turn to eight, inky tentacles—his face ages about fifty years and Luminara is too shocked to say anything. He crawls over to her with impressive speed, snatching Obi-Wan from her arms and diving into the ocean.

“Obi-Wan!” Luminara cries, reaching a hand over the side of the ship and letting her despair and anger turn to determination.

_You messed with the wrong fucking Queen._

 

* * *

 

Obi-Wan comes back to consciousness as soon as he hits the water.

“Don’t worry, boy.” Dooku tells him, dragging him through the waves roughly; waves that feel almost unfamiliar, despite Obi-Wan only being gone from them for three days. “You’re not the prize I’m after—I have much bigger plans for—“

“Dooku!” King Qui-Gon shouts—for the first time in Obi-Wan’s admittedly short spanned life, he hears his father shout. “Stop, and let my son go.”

“I’m afraid I shan’t be doing that.” Dooku grins. “He’s mine now—we made a deal, your little boy and I.”

Obi-Wan looks up to his father guiltily, though says nothing, simply choosing to look at the ground in shame. Qui-Gon takes no mind of his son in that moment, pointing his trident to the sea witch’s contract and firing gold light from its tip.

“I _told_ you,” Dooku says, which the contract remains untouched. “The contract was made completely legally—and therefore, your son is bound to me. I really hate to break it to you like this.”

Qui-Gon looks too shocked for words, staring at Dooku, unbelieving. One of the eels approaches with a large knife wrapped in its tail, poised at Obi-Wan’s throat. “Thing don’t have to go this way, Qui-Gon.” Dooku conceals a smile. “Hand the trident to me and let my eels take you to a lovely little prison chamber, and I’ll let your boy go—refuse, and I’ll have another head to add to my collection.”

The collection of rotting heads has not gone unnoticed by Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan—nor had it gone unnoticed by Obi-Wan the first time he was here—and only succeeds in making the young prince wretch.

“I...” Looking at the sea witch in defeat—Qui-Gon drops the trident on the seabed, defeated. “Let him _go._ ”

To his credit, Dooku does let Obi-Wan go. Instead of the young prince’s death, a swirl of purple light like a tornado envelops the King and tunnels into the seabed just enough to make room for the Qui-Gon. Once the King is placed in his sandy cell the purple force presses the earth back on top him like a sandcastle. “he’ll run out of breath in about an hour or so.” Dooku smiles. “Such a pity.”

 

* * *

 

The first thing Luminara does is rip that _stupid_ veil from her head.

Lord Windu, who has been one of the few spectators on the ship, seems completely in awe of what just transpired. As would be expected—it isn’t everyday that the mute boy who washed up on the shore turns into a mermaid, and gets dragged into the ocean by _something_ with tentacles.

Octoman? Is that a thing?

Luminara, on the other hand, has had enough awe to last her a lifetime, and is quite prepared to move on.

Grabbing the cake knife from a table and releasing one of the lifeboats, she jumps overboard landing quite neatly in the rowboat. Setting the knife down next to her, Luminara starts to row towards where Obi-Wan had been pulled under the water.

“You grace!” Windu cries from the ship, apparently back to the land of the living. “What on earth are you doing?”

“He was a good man,” Luminara shouts back. “I won’t lose him.” She rows hard until she spots a golden light underneath the water, grabs the knife and dives. She throws the knife with excellent precision despite being underwater, wedging it into the tentacle creature’s (octoman’s?) arm, that had been previously wrapped around Obi-Wan’s torso a little too tightly. He makes an angry noise, swirling around.

“After her!” He yells, and two eels dart towards her as she desperately tries to swim back to the surface. Obi-Wan tries to come to her aid, but is held back by the creature. The eels wrap around her and growl in her face—she kicks and tries to get out but it becomes increasingly difficult as her breath becomes short.

To her surprise a crab comes to her rescue, pinching her assailants just enough so that Luminara can squeeze out of their grip. The creature (old man? Octopus?) groans and points a golden trident at her— she moves out of the way just in time as to avoid a seemingly deadly beam—and unintentionally (though quite brilliantly) leaves a free path for it to hit the two eels that had pursued her.

A growl escapes the creatures lips, he releasing his grip on Obi-Wan and envelops himself in black ink diffuses in the water around them. Obi-Wan swims to the surface hurriedly, grabbing his Queen and pulling her into his arms. “Luminara, you have to get away from here.” He urges, on the brink of tears. “The sea witch—Dooku, he’ll kill you!”

“I won’t leave you.” She replies deceptively calmly, wrapping her arms around his chest as if for dear life. Below them the water begins to unsettle, and hard surface rises beneath them before they can do anything to move. A head—Dooku’s head—emerges from the water underneath them, its size more than twenty times what it should be, thanks to the trident. Luminara and Obi-Wan dive back into the water in sync, getting as far out of the sea witch’s reach as possible.

“I had such hopes for you, Obi-Wan.” Dooku says, crashing a tentacle down that misses the merprince by a couple of metres.

Turning his attention away from the young couple, Dooku twirls the trident in the sky, and a whirlpool of enormous strength forms quickly around him. Luminara and Obi-Wan are torn from each other’s grasp—Luminara thrown a hundred feet in the air by a powerful wave.

The whirlpool stirs a shipwreck that had been lying on the seabed, ushering it up to the surface, banging smaller pieces of debris against the rocks as an almost fully fledged war galley sails straight for the back of Luminara’s head.

“Luminara!” Obi-Wan cries. Her head ducks underneath the water, narrowly missing the ship’s hull that threatens to impale her.

The initial shock of seeing the ship— _her_ ship, she knows _Tranquillity_ like the back of her hand, this is _her_ ship—diffuses quickly and morphs into something that is almost delight.

_Tranquillity_ has been the equivalent of Luminara’s home for years. If she can stay afloat, Luminara can sail her.

Sinking down deeper below the surface of the ocean, she grabs onto one of the ropes from the side of the ship and clings on. Once determining its strength, Luminara pulls herself up into the deck, not allowing herself even a moment to breathe before she’s on the bridge.

On the other side of the whirlpool she spies Obi-Wan, though she sees him to late, since he’s already caught the sea witch’s attention. A scream almost escapes her lips as the witch fires a beam of energy from the trident at Obi-Wan, and is silently relieved when said beam misses, only for more and more to be fired at him.

A deep resentment she hasn’t felt in years fills her from head to toe, and she steers _Tranquillity_ right into the heart of the whirlpool—to the sea witch.

“Such a pity things couldn’t work out for you, boy.” The sea witch pouts, pointing the trident once more at Obi-Wan, preparing to fire.

_Good,_ Luminara thinks. _Let youself be distracted_

Pointing the hull right into the witch’s side, Luminara drives the _Tranquillity_ through his body.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t cry out. Instead, she and the witch make eye contact one last time, before he drops the trident and falls down into the sea, tentacles flailing, smoke drifting up from the sea like steam.

 

* * *

 

The trident falls down into the sea, landing just to the left of its true owners sandy tomb. Its presence gives Qui-Gon the strength to break through the sea bed.

He feels fragile and unpleasant—as anyone would, being buried alive—though does feel the return of security around him.

“The sea is safe again.” He mutters to himself, with a weak smile, looking up to the black sky above the waves.

 

* * *

 

Qui-Gon watches his son from a nearby rock. Obi-Wan found his Queen quite quickly after the events of last night with Dooku, and brought her to the shore to rest. Even now, as an onlooker, Qui-Gon can just _see_ how much his son loves his human.

He knows the feeling—his wife may be gone, but he now understands that Obi-Wan should not be punished for his own mistakes with humans.

“You know, sir.” Cody says, popping up from under the water. “He really does love her.”

The King sighs—it’s all too evident. “I suppose we face one final dilemma, then.”

“And that is?”

“How much I’m going to miss him.”

A beam of light escapes the trident once more, hitting Prince Obi-Wan and enveloping him in a gold light. As Queen Luminara stirs and begins to wake, he emerges from the water (not naked) with legs, a voice, and most importantly—her heart.

And this time, there is no one to stop him reaching her lips.

 

* * *

 

“Stop shuffling—I swear you’re going to make this boat capsize.” Luminara scolds lightly as he rows out to sea at midnight, six months later.

“Maybe if you’d picked a more comfortable boat, I wouldn’t be shuffling do much.”

“What did you want me do?” She asks, incredulously. “It’s a rowboat—it’s not like I’m going to find a _cushioned rowboat_ anywhere soon.”

Obi-Wan shrugs. “You look beautiful, by the way.”

It’s dark and she’s trying not to show it, but Obi-Wan can still sense the blush that creeps onto her cheeks. He stops rowing and sets the paddle in the boat, taking her hand and kissing it softly.  “It’s funny,” She says, looking down into the water. “That the groom _isn’t_ supposed to see the bride in her dress before the wedding, and here we are.”

“Well, technically, I’ve seen you in that dress before. Twice.” It’s true—Luminara is wearing the only dress she owns, a black gown required for christening, weddings and such. Obi-Wan had convinced her to wear it.  

It isn’t a  typical wedding dress—but is appropriate for them.

They’re hardly your typical couple.

“I suppose we can’t really get much more bad luck.” She smiles, and crosses her legs.

It’s then that Qui-Gon emerges from the water. He looks beyond proud. “Obi-Wan.” He bows his head, Obi-Wan forgets the formalities and throws his arms around his father.

“It’s going to capsize!” Luminara cries, gripping the edge of the rowboat and attempting to balance it out. Obi-Wan gives her a sheepish look.

“Sorry.”

Qui-Gon chuckles and looks at Luminara. “So you are the woman that caused all the drama six months ago, I believe?”

She blushes. “Technically,” She says. “Though, realistically, none of it was really my fault. But yes. Luminara Unduli, nice to meet you sir.”

“It is forgotten, my dear.” He smiles. “Now didn’t I promise you two a wedding?”

 

 

 


End file.
